


Friendly Differences

by LadyLanera, snapeswidow



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 19:57:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9783542
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLanera/pseuds/LadyLanera, https://archiveofourown.org/users/snapeswidow/pseuds/snapeswidow
Summary: An idea that came to Snapeswidow and me late at night that we had to write together... how would our favorite Slytherins approach Valentine's Day...





	

**Author's Note:**

> All of the following Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

Just a few things. That’s what he told himself. Just a few things. Like bubotuber pus. Because who didn’t need it these days? And porcupine quills. They were definitely a must. And maybe he should buy some beetles as well while he was at it. His stock was starting to run low unfortunately. Stupid fourth-years.

Honestly, how in the world could they screw up Fever Reducer potion anyway? It was the easiest potion in the book. He hated to imagine what they’d do to the elixirs later in the term. Imbeciles.

He sneered when he caught a vagrant walking towards him with daisies in hand. As if he wanted daisies. Did he look like a flower person? Honestly, Diagon Alley had gone to the dogs lately.

“Buy your—” started the vagrant flower peddler.

His hand shot up and instantly cut the woman off. “Silence.” He could tell by the woman’s sharp intake of air he had made his point. On second thought, though, maybe he should add some aster to his list of ingredients. It had some purpose after all.

Pushing open the door to the apothecary, Severus entered and felt his good mood quickly diminish. Lovely. Just lovely. Love potion ingredients were on sale not to mention the dreaded potions themselves. He grimaced as he slowly eased around the huddled women, clearly plotting who their next love would be.

Everywhere he looked, there were love potions. It was worse than Valentine’s Day at Hogwarts with all those pre-pubescent adolescents trying to snog one another in secret nooks and crannies of the castle. He shivered as a memory popped up of a certain couple, who were way past the appropriate age to be caught snogging in the teachers’ lounge. He hadn’t been able to stomach going there for a month, let alone go near the sofa. There were no cleaning charms strong enough for that. He shuddered once more. And they were Heads of Houses too.

“Looking to bewitch a certain witch's mind, Severus?” drawled a tall, blond-haired man as he sauntered over to him.

Severus blinked when he heard Lucius’s voice. When had he come in? No, actually, the real question was why was Lucius there, Severus decided half a moment later. It wasn’t like Lucius was known for his brewing skills after all.

With a playful smirk, the blond picked up a random love potion from a bin beside him. “I would think a man of your profession would know better than to buy into this drivel?” Not noticing Severus’s glare directed on him, the blond aristocrat snorted as he read the bottle in his hand. “Erotic elixir, an instant lust in a bottle. Who comes up with these awful names?”

Brushing aside his annoyance at Lucius’s intrusion, Severus shrugged. “Likely the idiots who brewed it, I’d imagine.” He then frowned, more of Lucius’s words becoming clearer. “And, no, if you may know, I am not here to bewitch any witch’s mind. I have much better ways than that crap to do so.” Severus then stepped closer to him. “What about you, Lucius? After all, you were the one who picked it up, not me.”

“I don’t need any help in that regard, Severus.” Lucius dropped the bottle back into the bin with the others, wiping his hand on his robes as if the bottle had left a stain. “And if I did, I wouldn’t be looking in an apothecary.” The blond smiled outright, as if he had his prey right where he wanted him. “There are shops that cater to one’s kinkier side that have far more interesting wares than can be found here.”

Inclining his head, Severus said nothing to that comment. If anyone knew of such shops, it would surely be Lucius, the sexual deviant Death Eater. Severus would never win that argument he knew, so he moved on, his earlier annoyance returning with a vengeance. “Personally, I find the fact that such crap is on sale now is ridiculous,” Severus drawled, “when I have to pay full price for moon petals when they’re currently in season, mind you.”

Lucius arched an eyebrow as he tried to figure out if Severus was joking or being completely serious. “Love potions are always on sale the day before Valentine's Day.” He narrowed his eyes at the dark haired man a moment later as a grin spread across his face. “You forgot, didn’t you? Oh, you are in so much trouble, old friend.”

“Forgot what?” That he was constantly surrounded by imbeciles? No, Severus was pretty certain he remembered that. He shook his head and scoffed. “In trouble with whom exactly? The world who believes that it’s perfectly all right to douse someone without his or her knowledge just so you may snog them with no effort?” He scoffed again. “Well, then, guilty as charged. Now, if you’ll forgive me, I do have some shopping to do.”

Lucius laughed. He couldn’t figure out how the other man could see a student adding a dangerous ingredient into a potion across a darkened classroom, but failed to remember the current day’s date. How the man survived all those years spying on their old master without an inkling of doubt from the others but couldn’t comprehend why the shop was full of witches and love potions made the blonde laugh harder. “A Valentine's gift better be on that shopping list, Severus.” Lucius drawled as he finally got his laughter under control. “Unless you want a very angry witch on your hands tomorrow.”

“And just why would I get her a gift? It was just Christmas after all.” He frowned. If he was expected to get her a gift every month, well, then she had another thing coming. He would be damned if she made him penniless just because of some foolish unwritten rule concerning such things. One-month anniversary gifts. Two-month. Hell, was he expected to buy her a gift whenever they had sex too?

“Are you telling me you aren’t celebrating Valentine's day with Aurora, Severus?” Lucius asked, all of his earlier humor leaving his voice. A strange look then crossed his face briefly. “Are you and Aurora no longer together?’’

“Of course we’re together,” Severus snapped, glaring at the blond. “And what in the bloody hell are you going on about anyway? The next event that I am forced to buy her love is her birthday, which I’ve already bought and hidden away. After that, then we can move on to the commercialized day that is Valentine’s Day. Not before!”

“Severus,” Lucius began slowly as if speaking to a child, “you do realize it’s February? Christmas was two months ago.” Severus was lucky he wasn’t married to Narcissa. Forgetting a holiday, let alone her birthday, was something Lucius feared more than the Dark Lord. In all the years the two had been married, he had forgotten their anniversary only once, and he still had the scar on his inner thigh from a dodged hex. “I think you’ve spent too much time over a cauldron, my friend.”

“It most certainly is not February!” It couldn’t be that blasted month yet. “If it were, then I’d most certainly be dead for forgetting Aurora’s birthday. Or at the very least have a gaggle of banshees, or rather one banshee in particular, hissing at me for forgetting it. And since I have yet to run across our dear Mother feline, I know what you say to be false. It is not February. Therefore, it is you who is wrong, Lucius, not me.”

Lucius would have hexed a lesser man for telling him he was wrong, but Severus was one of his only friends so he let it slide. “Look around you, my idiot friend.” He grabbed the younger man by the arm and dragged him to the door. “Unless I am under the influence of some mind altering curse, the entire village is decorated, rather garishly I might add, for Valentine's Day.” He Summoned that day's paper from the counter clerk’s hands and thrust it in his friend's chest. “Look at the date if you don’t believe me.”

Severus scoffed but glanced down at the date. Sure enough, the date did read February 13. His eyes then narrowed as his mind tried to comprehend what was going on. But… how was that possible? Christmas just occurred, hadn’t it? He could recall decorating the tree with her. He could even recall exchanging gifts with her. He had given her a rare tome, and she had given him some sort of slime thing that he still had no idea what he was going to do with.

No. No. It couldn’t be February. It had to be a trick. An illusion. A nightmare. Right? There was no way he had just missed two months’ time. Yes, he’d admit he was brewing more than usual, but when one has a castle full of miscreants such as the ones Hogwarts had, one was required to brew more potions for Madam Pomfrey in order to nurse the little bastards back to health or grow a new arm or fix teeth. It wasn’t as if there was anyone else in the bloody damn castle who could brew. Or at least none who came close to his caliber of skills.

How could he be missing two months? She’d have noticed he was missing, right? Someone maybe? He then frowned, wondering when the last time was that he had anything to eat. Had he eaten anything lately? It was strange, but he couldn’t recall.

Lucius was beginning to worry as the confusion grew on the other man's face as he processed the information given to him. He could almost hear the thoughts fluttering though Severus’s mind, and he began to wonder what would have happened to the younger man if he hadn’t run into him.

Forgetting a few days was one thing, but two whole months was alarming. He made a mental note to speak with a few of his old contacts on the Board of Governors about how overworked Severus was. As he took in his friend's appearance, he noticed Severus looked more gaunt and paler than normal.

“Severus?” He loosened his grip on the other man's arm. “You honestly have no idea what day it is?” he asked the man gently.

Severus glanced at him before he stepped back. He couldn’t show weakness. Not to him. Not to anyone. Well, Aurora he would. He had a lot of making up to do with her after all. Two months . . . How was that possible?

Lucius shook his head and sighed. “What am I going to do with you, Severus?” The blonde wondered how long it would have taken the younger wizard to realize he had lost so much time if he hadn’t followed him into the apothecary. “How do you plan on getting yourself out of this predicament you’ve found yourself in?”

“Oh, shut up, Lucius,” Severus huffed. He glared at the man before he directed his glare on the others. He needed to leave. He needed to go home and explain. Beg for forgiveness. It was the only way. Damn it! How could he forget? He was going to lose her too just as he had lost his first love. They always left him, every single one of them, in the end.

“You have no idea how to fix this, do you?” Lucius would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so out of character for Severus. He couldn’t recall a time when he had seen his friend so frazzled, which made him want to help the man even more. “I can tell you from personal experience that a simple apology will not work, no matter how much groveling you do.”

“What would you recommend then?” He tried to keep the bite from his voice, but he couldn’t hold his temper fully back. Of course Lucius would think it would be so simple to fix. So easy. Nothing came easy. Nothing. His entire life had proved that. You grovel, and you’re pushed aside like yesterday’s garbage. You do a grand gesture, and you’re buying one’s forgiveness. No. What he needed was a time turner. It was the only way to fix it. Idly, he wondered what had happened to Granger’s time turner anyway?

“How you ended up in Slytherin is beyond me.” Lucius muttered, as he flicked his hair over his shoulder. Severus was damned lucky the Dark Lord wasn’t a female because the man was utterly clueless when it came to the opposite sex. “You need to make it seem like you were planning something extravagant, something so unexpected, that it took all of your attention to plan. You have already admitted to forgetting the woman’s birthday, which I do not recommend doing again. You can use it to your advantage now and make tomorrow a combination of both her birthday gift and a Valentine’s gift.’’

“So your brilliant advice is to lie to her? Wonderful.”

Lucius wanted to shake some sense into the other man. “We are Slytherins. We don’t lie. We plan. You had no clue you even forgot her birthday, so you wouldn’t really be lying to the woman.”

“I’ll take my chances then.” Severus made a move to walk away.

“You are an idiot, then,” Lucius replied, stepping in the way of his friend. “I am trying to help you, Severus. Swallow that damned pride of yours and admit you messed up.”

“I will not be lectured by you, Lucius.” His voice was icy and low. The man just didn’t understand. Everything in Severus’s life for so long was a lie. He’d be damned if he returned to those ways and attempted to pull the wool over Aurora’s eyes as Lucius recommended. He’d come clean to her. In fact, if the damned man would move the hell out of the way, that was what he’d do just then. So many lies. He had sworn he wouldn’t resort to those ways again. Not with their relationship. Hell, it was a wonder how she could even trust him, considering all the lies he told over the years. Somedays even he didn’t know which were lies and truths anymore.

“Severus,” Lucius began but knew by the man’s tone that he was done listening. He reached into an inner pocket of his robes and withdrew a small Peacock figurine. “Fine. Do it your way, but let me give you an alternative if you decide to pull the Hufflepuff out of your Arse.” He held out the figurine to Severus. “It’s a direct Portkey to a villa in France Narcissa uses on occasion. Take Aurora there for the weekend or use it to lick your wounds when she doesn't forgive you.”

Severus’s dark eyes flashed angrily. He stepped threateningly towards Lucius, the curse on his tongue before he clenched his jaw even tighter. How dare he! Feeling himself shake, he knew he needed to leave. Now! He spun around, Disapparating on spot.

Lying. Bribing. Cheating. He may have been the world’s worst husband when it came to recalling things, but he wouldn’t resort to those methods. Aurora had always been so honest when it came to him. He owed her to do the same.

Lucius stared after his friend, wondering for the hundredth time in their friendship why the man would rather abase himself for a woman instead of take a more Slytherin approach and never admit he was wrong unless it was a last resort. Maybe the differences between the two of them were the reasons Lucius had befriend the man all those years ago. With a shrug, the blond left the apothecary in search of a last minute gift for his own wife, who’d never find out he had nearly forgot the holiday as well if he could help it.


End file.
